ChristianDemocrat.us Blog

Christian Theology with Democratic Ideology

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Democrats Open Shelter For Homeless Republicans

a Guest Commentary from Gary Horton:

Last week I wrote about the half million homeless Americans overfilling our inner cities. My encounter with a particularly distraught man also brought to mind another kind of homelessness overrunning America. This other homelessness is the betrayal and abandonment of traditional conservatives by the Bush-Cheney Republican Party.

Just as America has cast its unwanted members to the mean streets of our cities, the Bush Republican Party has cast millions of traditional conservatives into political homelessness. These political exiles live and play here among the rest of us. We see them at work, shopping and dining, driving and walking. They have money enough to spend, for now - and live in apparent comfort. But quietly, in their hearts and minds, they are every bit as homeless and distraught as the wretched men and women forsaken and alone on our inner-city streets.

Along the twisted and immoral road of Bush’s five years of “leadership”, traditional conservatives were first marginalized, then ostracized, and finally cast out from their political homes. They’re pariahs in the very party they once cherished. These days, America’s ethical conservatives are frightened and disoriented. They abhor the fascist leanings of the Bush junta - which shockingly promotes torture, which blatantly lied America into war, which retributively punishes dissension, and which is corrupt to its essence.

The new homeless of our country are the conservative republicans of yesteryear. Of high ethics, these conservatives respect the rule of law and honor the high moral traditions of America. They value personal privacy and freedom, conservation of resources, fiscal prudence, and avoid international adventurism. Yet they, along with their traditional values, have been ignominiously rejected and turned out on their heads.

Traditional conservatives are victims of a crime, and their beloved republican party is the crime scene. The capper began with fraudulent campaigning, and has mushroomed to grand theft, betrayal, sedition, treason, and war crimes.

Conservatives were “bait and switched” to vote for a tyrant who has since defiled the moral foundation of the Republican Party. Bush promised America honor, but delivered debasement. Conservatives took the bait on Bush’s “fiscal prudence”, “no nation building”, and “compassionate conservatism”. They were tricked, and got reckless radicalism instead of conservatism.

Today, traditional conservatives are as estranged and enraged as the homeless man I encountered in Los Angeles last week.

Looking back to 2000, honest conservatives reluctantly conclude that neo-fascists blitzkrieg’d the White House and commandeered America brandishing “shock and awe” propaganda. Looking to the present, honest conservatives are repelled at the dishonor that George Bush has rendered upon America...

Bush’s America espouses torture - and indeed, right now, tortures foreign citizens whom it abducts from their home countries to clandestine locations throughout the world.

Bush led America to invade, without provocation, a sovereign country that posed us no threat.

The Bush administration has wasted 2100 American soldiers and had been the instrument of death for 50,000 Iraqis in a “mistaken” war, promoted by “bad intelligence.”

Bush’s America revoked freedoms of personal privacy through the Orwellian named “Patriot Act”. Your medical, phone, and other records are now available to the government, without your consent.

Bush mortgaged America to big energy. The Enrons, Exxons, and Haliburtons control public policy more than do voters. And Bush rewards these robber barons with 15 billion in tax breaks.

All told, the Bush leadership of the Republican Party repulses the sensibilities of traditional conservatives. Now painfully aware of the hijacking of their political house, disposed conservatives are confused and disoriented. The Bush insurrection has trashed their values and robbed them of their honorable party.

Just as there’s a rescue mission for homeless street people, there’s also shelter for displaced conservatives. In fact, it’s located nearby to what used to be their political home. Today’s Democratic Party espouses the ethical values which traditional conservatives hold dear, and which the Bush Republican Party now betrays.

Democrats value and respect individual rights and human life. Democrats are slow to war - loath to waste life on politically and economically motivated causes.

Democrats are the party of fiscal prudence. They are committed to balancing our federal budget, and balanced it just six years ago - before George Bush’s “borrow and blow” fiscal policy sunk our national budget and debased our nation’s finances.

Democrats value everyday citizens like you and me. Their first priority is to our own people - of all ages and stations in life. They steer our resources towards the elderly, the infirmed, the newborn, and importantly, toward education. Democrats understand fair play is an underlying principle of democracy, and is a bedrock component of economic growth. Economic security and growth must be open to all.

Democrats respect God’s gift of natural resources. They protect our environment, so America can enjoy all of creation for decades and centuries to come.

And Democrats respect America’s Armed Forces. They will purge the Bushite corruptions of torture and end reckless military deployment.

Dear exiled and homeless republicans - there is shelter from the abhorrent Bush atrocities against your principles and party. Your traditional conservative ethics are appreciated and are represented in today’s Democratic party. Feel free to stop in for a visit, and make our home your home. It’s a safe place with a bright future. Together, we can restore America’s honor - and restore prominence and practice to the ethical values we mutually hold so dear.

Visit www.democrats.org for reassuring comfort and acceptance. Welcome back home to the America you remember.

About Me

I'm a husband, a father, a Christian, a worker, a golfer, a driver, a gardener, a fixer-of-things, a reader and a writer.
Writing ChristianDemocrat.us since 2004 has been a part of my personal growth in faith and in politics.
I want an America that is GREAT for all it's citizens, where those of faith, all faiths, as well as those without faith can communicate peacefully with each other and work towards common good.